June 12, 2001

Contact: Jenny Mehmedovic, Office of Vice Chancellor for Information Services, (785) 864-4999.

KU, Sunflower Cable connect new fiber-optic services

LAWRENCE -- The University of Kansas and Sunflower CableVision of Lawrence are celebrating a fiber-optic connection that benefits both KU and Sunflower Cable.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway and Dolph Simons Jr., president of the World Company, will meet at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 14, in KU's Ellsworth Annex, 1736 Engel Road, to ceremonially connect KU and Sunflower Cablevision. Literally, the two executives will reach out to touch or interconnect fiber cables in KU's Networking and Telecommunications Services office. Sunflower Cable is a wholly owned subsidiary of the World Company, which also owns the Lawrence Journal World newspaper.

Marilu Goodyear, KU's vice chancellor for information services, said, "KU community members will benefit directly from the new Sunflower fiber-optic connection with increased convenience and flexibility for access to campus networked resources from home. We're looking forward to exploring additional service opportunities with Sunflower in the future."

The fiber-optic connection linking KU and Sunflower Cable
 • expands the number of KU's cable channels from 36 to 72 and offers digital TV programming;
 • provides faster access to campus network resources from the homes of KU faculty, staff and student subscribers to Sunflower's cable modem service, DataVision; and
 • permits live broadcasting through Sunflower's KU Channel 66.

Patrick Knorr, Sunflower's general manager, said, "This connection allows us to improve the services we provide to customers in the form of improved signal quality of Channel 66 and improved Internet connectivity for our data customers. It also improves the services that we are able to provide to KU in terms of both quality and range."

One of the first uses of the new fiber-optic connection was a live broadcast of KU's commencement ceremony on May 20 from Memorial Stadium over the university's access Channel 66, Goodyear said.

Before the fiber-optic connection was established, KU's signal was broadcast on airwaves and rebroadcast through Sunflower's Cable TV system. With the new connection, KU sends its signal directly to Sunflower on the new fiber cable, resulting in a much higher quality broadcast than was previously possible, Goodyear said.

KU's William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, which broadcast commencement on KUJH-TV, will continue to benefit from the new connection throughout the year. KUJH-TV broadcasts on Channel 66 on Sunflower Cablevision in Lawrence and Eudora, on Channel 14 in Lawrence, and Channel 68 in Overland Park.

The relationship between KU and Sunflower allowed a smooth ending to the 2001 spring semester, Goodyear said. Typically, Internet usage increases at the end of a semester. This spring, when KU learned that its order for high-speed fiber-optic service would not arrive before the end of the semester, engineers from Sunflower and KU's Networking and Telecommunications Services responded.

Sunflower and KU engineers procured special network electronics and reconfigured routing software to allow Sunflower to deliver the additional Internet capacity needed. "Their solution not only eliminated an anticipated slowdown in Internet access caused by an increase in usage, it actually enhanced performance for KU Internet users" Goodyear said.

More uses of the new connection between Sunflower and KU are being discussed. Access to Sunflower's other services can provide additional options and opportunities for KU's wide-ranging needs, Goodyear said.